Beyond The Grave
by LonerTomatoes
Summary: The world is in ruins. Families separated, government is nonexistent, and infected rampaging through the streets. Erika falls into a coma right before it started and now she'll learn the world is not so bright as it used to be. (WAY better than summary) Rated M for excessive gore.


It was a crisp, cool morning in Ufa, Russia. There was only a slight breeze, just enough to cause the trees to shake. Though it was just a simple breeze, it was enough to chill your bones. The ground was littered with orange and red leaves that crunched under your foot with every step. Laughter could be heard from children as they played in piles of fallen leaves inside of a massive park.

A girl with a simple ribbon in her short hair walked beside what seemed to be her older brother. The girl looked up at her brother in admiration and respect. They would look identical if it weren't for the fact that the male was a foot taller and the female had a ribbon in her hair.

The two were visiting this town as a little vacation to get away from their home town in Switzerland. It was the younger one's idea since she could see how much stress her brother was in. It was too bad they had picked the wrong season to go.

"Look at the sky, brother."

The older one glanced up at the dark sky. Anyone could clearly tell that there was a storm brewing. "We should probably start heading back." He grabbed his sister's hand. "Let's go."

They stood on the corner of the street where the crossroad came together. The man pressed the crossing button over and over with impatience.

"Why won't the light turn already?" he muttered to himself. The male was so occupied pressing the button that he didn't see the light had already changed. He rushed across the street, taking long steps. The girl struggled to keep up with him due to her shorter legs and tried to reach out and hold his hand.

As the younger struggled to cross the street, she heard the sound of screeching tires against the rubble road. Wheeling her body to face the noise, she froze in terror as a car came speeding into her view. Not even able to utter a sound, the last thing she could remember was the burning feeling of her bones crushing.

The man hear a loud thump from behind him and turned around to see where the noise had come from. The first thing he saw as he turned around was his precious little sister being smacked into the hood of a speeding car. His eyes widened with fear. "Erika!" he yowled as he raced to her side. The brother carried his sister to the sidewalk quickly before any other inconsiderate drivers ran them over. He laid her down in a modest position and pulled down her dress. The man gulped knowing that he would have to lift it again any ways to inspect the damage.

Mentally preparing himself first, the man slowly inched up her dress. The taste of bile rose in the back of his throat seeing his sister this way. He could easily see rough bruising beginning to form across her abdomen and arms, a few cuts painting the surface of her skin. There was thin trickles of blood leaking out of the gashes, connecting together and forming one thick stream. The older tried his best not to gag.

He also couldn't help but notice that there was more blood flowing from her sealed shut lips, coating her chin with thin lines drying upon her neck. A rib or two was also obviously broken, but that seemed to be the least of her problems. It was clear that her arm was the worst of them all, looking as though it was flipped backwards and twisted in multiple directions.

The man decided he had seen enough and pulled back down Erika's dress. He never even dreamed he would have to see his sister like this.

"Call an ambulance!" He screamed to everyone on the sidewalk and street, begging them for help. Most people had stopped what they were doing when they saw a tiny, blonde girl get run over and instead of helping, they stood by and observed.

Some people fumbled for their phones while others returned back to their daily lives. The car from before had already drove off, leaving the man even more pissed.

Erika was loosing a lot of blood. And fast too. She was lying in a puddle of the stuff and her blonde hair now a dark red. Her brother took off his jacket and tried to stop the bleeding, but to no avail. It was having no effect.

The sounds of an ambulance whined loudly to the rescue. The rest was a blur for the man except for when they had to take Erika from his arms.

He remembers screaming for her back, thinking they were going to hurt her more in his shock and rage. "Don't hurt her, please!"

A woman tried to calm him down by asking what had happened along with other simple questions. 'Where are you from? What happened? What is your name?'

"My name," he started slowly. "Is Vash. Vash Zwingli."

"And the girl?"

"She's my sister, Erika Vogel."

~Time Skip Thing~

The first thing I feel is pain. I can faintly hear voices screaming at each other.

"Erika, no!" I can hear my brother yelling. 'No' what? Am I doing something I'm not supposed to? I try to open my eyes, but my eyelids are so heavy… It takes so much effort just to lift them. I endure it to see Vash, though.

He's leaning over me, grabbing my shoulders, and giving me a light shake. I could make out a man behind him, tugging on his arms. "Sir, the code prevents you from causing any more bodily harm to the patients than they already have. I ask you politely to remove your hands from her, or I will be forced to kick you out of the hospital."

The weight of my eyelids was too much for me, so I shut my eyes again. I wish I could have seen him longer.

Vash grumbled. I knew he was going to do that. Everyone knew how protective he was of me. I'm sure even the doctors could tell. He stepped away from my side, but watch me like a hawk. I felt comforted that he was with me though. It was obvious something had happened to me, but I couldn't remember what. I strained my memory, but nothing came to mind except for a blinding pair of lights.

All this thinking was making me tired… The doctor's voice was already fading as I slowly fell asleep. I'm sure a little bit of sleeping wouldn't hurt though. Just a small nap.

"Erika, no! Please!"

" _Big brother, please. I'm trying to sleep."_

~Time Skip Thing~

Sunlight leaked through the double pane windows, not being held back in the slightest due to the curtains being drawn. For the first time in what was most likely months, the blonde girl sleeping upon the white matress of the bed began to stir. She clenched her eyes to protect her green orbs underneath from the harsh rays of sun. The beeping of machinery kept waking her everytime she started to fade off.

She huffed softly realizing that her tactic had failed her. Knowing she would have to get up eventually, she opened her eyes and exposed them to the light. She blinked multiple times and let her eyes adjust to her surroundings. She didn't recognize the pure white, nearly a fine alabaster, ceiling above her, and yet it seems oddly familiar.

She sat straight up in her bed after she'd realized where she was. _She was in the hospital._

It all started coming back to her. The car, the crash, everything. Where was everyone? Why was it so quiet? What day was it?

" _Think rationally, Erika,"_ she said to herself. " _There is no need to lose your head. Just call the nurses to help."_

The girl pressed the button on the side of her bed and waited patiently for someone to come. Any other person would have lost their mind, but she had more sense than most. There was no way she was going to go crazy in this situation. After all, there isn't going to be someone watching over her 24/7.

Okay, she has been waiting for at least an hour and the beeping from the machines was going to make her pull her hair out. Tired of waiting, she decided instead of bringing the doctors to her, she would take herself to the doctors.

She took all of the needles and tubes out of herself -probably not the best thing to do- and opened up the door to go look around for somebody.

Erika took one step out of the door and stepped in something wet. Her first thought was, 'somebody didn't pee here did they? No, they probably just spilt water or something.' Unfortunately, both assumptions were wrong. She was stepping in somebody else's _blood._

It took her fragile, sheltered mind a while to process what she was standing in. She shrieked and jumped back into the clean room, leaving a bloody footprint on the white floor.

"Oh God, I'm going to puke," she muttered to herself, covering her mouth with her hand. What the hell was going on? All she could do was stare at the pool of red outside the door. She was scared to look any further than the puddle.

She closed the door slowly and opened it back just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating or something. Nope, still there.

 _Pinch_. Not a dream either.

That meant this was real.

But, she couldn't stay cooped up in this room forever, though. She would have to go out eventually, so it may as well be now.

Taking in a shaky breath, Erika hopped over the thick, sticky puddle, making a disgusted face as she took a glance back at it. She peeled her eyes from the revolting sight, shaking her head. "Okay, now that that's over... It's time to find someone," she prompted herself, a look of what could be described as confidence with a tinge of worry painting her features.

As she walked down the abandoned halls, Erika nearly jumped when the lights flickered. They kept flashing, again and again, over and over, but after a while, she got used to it.

She found a set of stairs around the corner and descended down them. The first flight of stairs seemed clean enough, but the further down she went, the more blood she saw.

The sight sent tingles up her spine. They were just little droplets at first, like somebody had a really bad bloody nose. That's what she liked to think every time she saw another spot.

Then she saw _an arm_.

Erika covered her mouth and held back her screams. The arm was obviously not fresh judging by the crusted blood on and surrounding it. Blood was caked underneath the chipped fingernails and the fingers were bent in different directions.

The girl stepped over the limb while chanting 'oh God' under her breath. She wished now more than ever she had clothes. This hospital gown hardly covered anything and this building was freezing cold.

There was no time to lose anymore. It seemed as if this entire building was abandoned and there was some sort of psychopath killer on the loose. Erika booked it down the steps, taking two at a time. Drops turned into splatters, splatters turned into puddles, and puddles turned pools. Soon, there wasn't a speck of white on the floor.

She had made it to the first level, and she didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. Down here there were limbs, half bodies, and heads _everywhere_. You couldn't see the floor, or even the blood on the floor, due to all the bodies and parts. The stench was unbearable too.

After emptying her stomach of the food it had left in it, she started to step slowly and carefully to the door.

Problem was, the was no place to step except on the corpses. So when Erika stepped onto the face of a doctor and their face caved into their skull, it was nauseating to say the least.

But, she eventually made it to the door. Her leg was covered in red up to her knees, but she had made it.

Erika opened the door and stepped out into the coldest weather she'd ever experienced. Not having clothes didn't help in the least. But she refused to go back into the blood bath inside.

Running was supposed to warm you up, right? What did she have to lose right? So with that idea in mind, she began to jog along the sidewalk. The wind bit at her skin and dried out her eyes, but she pushed on.

Because blindly running without a destination was a good idea.

It was weird though, she hadn't seen a single body since she had been in the hospital. She had run at least two streets away from it, but nothing.

Erika's skin was starting to go numb. She needed warm clothing before she froze.

She stepped on something really familiar. And now, after the hospital experience, she'd recognized it immediately and jumped off of it.

Here comes the first whole body.

The girl would have looked alive if it wasn't for the gaping bullet wound in her forehead. She wore glasses, had long, sandy blonde hair in a side braid with a dark red ribbon in it. She had on a dress that worked as a coat with thick leggings underneath to keep her legs warm and thick, black boots. Probably only a year or two older than Erika. She looked beautiful, even in death.

Erika really didn't want to, but she knew she would have to unless she wanted to be lying next to the girl as a human popsicle.

After apologizing to the girl for violating her corpse, Erika stripped her down to her underwear. Erika took off the hospital gown and replaced them with the warmer clothing.

She felt bad for stealing the clothes, but there wasn't much she could do about it. Erika took the ribbon out of the girl's hair, placed it in her hands, and put them right over where the girl's heart would be.

"Rest in peace."

Now the wind didn't impact her as much. The clothes were very warm and blocked the cold from her skin. The only problem now was that she didn't have any undergarments, but she would figure it out later.

Erika kept running to street after street, looking for something other that corpses or limbs. She had to find shelter and food. Maybe some people to explain to her what was going on.

Avoiding as many severed body parts and dead corpses as she could, the girl kept moving until she finally found a house that didn't have gruesome stuff all over it. Taking the cold, brass knob into her fingers, she turned it slowly, mentally preparing herself for anything and everything she could be faced with.

Thankfully, when she took a look inside of the door, there was nothing too horrifying that laid within. There was a few puddles of blood which were easily avoided hopped over by her.

Soon, Erika had looked through the whole house, softly calling 'hello?' every few seconds. No one answered.

The worst part of the house was the kitchen. When she went inside, she had to look away immediately. There were bloody knives skewn everywhere, along with broken glasses that seemed to have been shattered overtop of the corpses heads. There some of the knives were stuck in the body's stomachs.

She found her way out of the house, breathing in what felt like fresh air compared to the inside. Okay, so that wasn't a house that she deemed safe and comforting. There wasn't even any food that was salvageable in in the fridge. There might have some stuff in there she could have gotten, but the stench was too much for her to handle. She just got flashbacks of the hospital.

Trudging down the street, she sighed. She didn't even know what on earth was happening, and it bugged her. Why was there dead people everywhere? Why was the town so abandoned? These were all questions she hoped to have answered soon.

Erika decided to check just one more house before she gave up. This one seemed more homely already, you could see lit candles through the windows and there was no blood painting the house. The only thing that worried her was that there was someone there that wouldn't admit her in. Compared to the other ones, this one seemed inhabited.

' _Come on, Erika. If you don't knock, you'll never know if they'll let you in or not,'_ she told herself. That boosted her confidence a bit, leading her to knock on the frosted door.

Waiting, she heard shuffling and a small whimper. That meant someone had to be there.

After about a minute of waiting, Erika looked back up at the door to see a woman, seemingly a bit older than her, with long, brown hair. There was a small, flower clip that secured a piece by her ear. She was wearing a torn and smudged green dress that looked like it would have been very beautiful before it got dirtied. Her eyes were a sharp brown and she narrowed them slightly, studying her.

"Who are you?" the woman questioned with an accent the smaller just couldn't make out.

"M-my name is Erika," she replied nervously. "My brother and I were here on a vacation. I just woke up in the hospital and everyone was gone..."

She could see a stab of pity wash through the woman. "Oh, so you don't know what is happening, do you?"

"No," Erika replied. "Can you tell me?"

There was a short silence before the taller spoke again. "Well, before I tell you, come in. I'm Elizabeta, by the way."

Nodding, Erika followed Elizabeta into the house. It seemed comfortable enough, a few chairs and couches surrounding a coffee table. But the first thing that caught her attention was the woman sitting on the end of the couch, huddled in the corner with a mug. She had short blonde hair along with a chest more on the busty side. She was wearing a simple white shirt and overalls.

"That's Katyusha," Elizabeta explained, sitting down and signaling for Erika to do the same.

Nodding once again, the smallest of the three sat down along with the others.

"So, you want to know what happened?" Elizabeta questioned.

Erika looked at her right in the eyes. "Of course I do. I want to know why there is corpses and blood everywhere, it's messing with my head."

Elizabeta nodded. "I understand."

"It started three months ago. The U.S government was creating an 'antidote' in their labs or something of the sort that was supposed to cure cancer," Elizabeta rubbed her temples. "Obviously it didn't go according to their plan. They'd injected it into a patient and it didn't work. The patient died soon after, but came back to 'life'. The doctors were stunned. Until it started biting others and killing them. They all came back as the same thing: zombies. Leave it to the U.S to turn a horror movie into real life. They had killed the zombies in the lab, but some idiot doctor forgot to wash off his hands and it spread in The States. Before anybody could figure out what was going on, some people carrying the virus got onto planes to Europe, Africa, Asia, the whole world."

"But, how does it spread?"

"Has to go inside your body. So if it the blood of the infected touches your skin, your fine. If it touches a wound or you swallow some, then you're done for."

Erika felt nauseated at the thought of swallowing someone else's blood. "Disgusting."

Elizabeta nodded. "You're telling me. Russian government came into town a couple of weeks ago. Started shooting everything that moved. Katyusha and I hid out in the basement here. We can't stay forever though. We have to move before another wave of infected comes."

Katyusha tapped Elizabeta's shoulder. "There's a difference between movie zombies and these zombies, remember?"

Elizabeta's eyes widened in realization. "Oh yeah! Don't know how I could forget that. Thanks." Katyusha nodded. "But, unlike the movie zombies, these ones are not remotely slow. They act human, can run like a human, and some can even think like us. Each type has a different eye colour. Smart have green eyes, fast ones have orange eyes, the 'invincible' onesl have grey eyes, and the always hungry ones have red eyes. But don't get me wrong, they all are fast and somewhat smart. Most are easy to kill. Just," Elizabeta formed a gun with her pointer finger and thumb and pressed it against her head. "Bam. With the invincible you have to basically fill their body with lead. No kidding. Can you work a gun, kid?"

Erika nodded. Vash had taught her a bit about guns, but strictly for self-defense. "I know enough to defeat one." It felt weird to say _kill_. Then again, this entire situation felt like a nightmare. Like she was going to wake up from it and laugh it off. Like some bad joke.

Elizabeta patted Erika's shoulder. "I know this is hard to process. It was for us too. But this is just a fact now. You'll get used to it eventually."

Erika nodded, unsure.

"You can go into the room down the hallway on the right. We are leaving in two day, but before then we have to stock up on supplies. We are heading to a town a few miles away called Samara to look for more survivors. There's a rumour there's a camp somewhere, but we don't know where. Now go get some rest. You must be tired."

Erika got up off the couch and to her room. It was a decent size with girly pink walls and band posters. Looked like it belongs to a twelve year old. Or belonged to one. She laid down on the butterfly decorated bed and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

~Time Skip Thing~

"Erika," A soothing voice said. "Hey, Erika. It's time to get up. We have stuff to do."

Erika stretched and yawned. This was a really comfortable bed. Too bad she would have to leave it eventually. She opened her eyes to see a pair of teal ones. Katyusha smiled. She reminded Erika of a mother looking over her baby as it slept.

"We each have chores today. You're coming with me while Elizabeta packs the stuff I got yesterday. I'll give you some time to change." And with that, Katyusha walk out the door.

Erika got out of the bed and saw there was a fresh pair of clothes sitting on the end of the bed. In the pile she saw something that was like money to a homeless guy: undergarments.

Hey, this is no joke.

She took off the dress from yesterday and felt something hard in the pocket. She reached in and found an ID card. It had a picture of the girl before with bright, beautiful eyes. The name only said 'Louise' but the last name had been scratched out with something.

Erika turned the card over to see scratches on it too. 'If someone has this, it means I am dead. Please bury card' is what it said. It looked hurried, yet somehow looked elegant. Even though it was written with scratch marks.

She would acknowledge Louise's wish though. She'd bury the clothes too.

Erika changed into the fresh pair of clothes and folded Louise's neatly. The clothes she was given today was a red striped dress that went past the knees and thick, white leggings underneath. She put in the purple ribbon she had somehow managed to keep this whole time in her hair and smiled in satisfaction.

She met outside where Katyusha was waiting patiently for her.

"You look very cute in that! Shall we get going?"

"I'm sorry, but could you hold on one more second? I need to do something real quick." Erika gestured to the clothes in her hands and Katyusha nodded.

"Okay, I'll give you a few more minutes. But daylight doesn't last long."

Erika ran to the back yard and dug up the ground with her bare hands and placed the clothes down in the hole. She sent a little prayer up to heaven, and filled the hole back in again.

The two started heading to the next street over to look for houses. Katyusha walked with her hands behind her back, putting a little bounce in her steps as if there was nothing wrong in the world. Erika wondered how she could do that while the world crumbled around them.

Erika looked down at the rocky pavement and noticed there was dirt on her knees. She tried to wipe it off, but to no avail. Her new leggings were ruined.

"Don't worry, Erika," Katyusha said with the same motherly smile. "Our clothes are going to get ruined no matter what we do anymore. And I know it's nasty, but we are going to have to wear these clothes multiple times since it's hard finding stuff to properly fit."

Erika grimaced in disgust and Katyusha just laughed. "You'll get used to it, unfortunately."

They found a house that wasn't as destroyed as the others and decided to hunt around in there. Katyusha had given her a list of things to look for: soap, blankets, sleeping bags, tent, and more hygiene stuff. The hygiene stuff was easy to find, but the rest proved to be difficult. Most of the blankets were destroyed or caked in blood and when she asked if those were okay, Katyusha said no. They needed the cleanest blankets they could find.

This house seemed to have belonged to rich folk judging from the size of the house. Apparently they didn't like the outdoors as much as they did indoors.

The two girls decided to move on and find a different house.

"So Erika, did you have any siblings?"

"I have an older brother. I haven't seen him since before I woke up, so I don't know where he is."

Katyusha's face showed pity for only a split second before it returned to it's optimistic one. Erika finally understood why she looked so calm; she was putting up a mask the whole time.

"I have a younger brother and sister," she started, with the motherly smile present. "My brother is so strong! He's very kind, but most don't see it since he had a scary atmosphere. But he's lovely the just the same. My precious younger sister is very fond of him too. She mostly wants to keep him all to herself since he helped her a lot during her youth." Tears pooled in her eyes and a single one fell before Katyusha wiped it away and smiled. "I love them a lot. We didn't have parents, so I was the one who raised them."

They walked in comforting silence before raiding more houses and finally finding all that they needed on the fifth try.

They returned to 'their' house to see Elizabeta shoving clothes inside of backpacks in a disorderly fashion. Katyusha gasped and started to tell her off for being so disorganized and that doing that was wasting room.

"I just wanted to get it over with faster..." Elizabeta muttered to herself.

Erika giggled and assisted them with their packing. "How are we going to move all of this?"

"Car." Elizabeta answered simply.

"You have a running car?"

"I've learnt how to hotwire cars."

Erika let the conversation go and just focus on packing the numerous backpacks silently. Each backpack was filled with clothes, hygiene materials, or weapons. Erika felt a weight in her stomach when she grabbed a gun to put in a bag before Elizabeta took it away from her without a word.

The rest of the day slowly passed until it was nighttime and Elizabeta said it was best to go to bed now since they would have to get up early.

Erika was about to head for her room for the last time when Katyusha suddenly hugged her from behind and gave her a kiss on the head.

"Good night."

Erika stayed up for hours thinking about the kiss. The spot where Katyusha kissed felt warm and comforting. Erika fell asleep thinking about Katyusha and Elizabeta's natural tendencies to be protective and look out for each other.

It was like they were a little family.

~Time Skip Thing~

Katyusha and Erika waited patiently in the livingroom for Elizabeta to show up with the car they were going to use. Neither of them showed it, but they were worried for her safety. Tension and worry hung in the air and it made them both uneasy.

"Hey Erika," Katyusha said. "About yesterday, I'm sorry if I made you feel awkward with my hugs and stuff. It's just that you remind me a lot of my younger sister." The tears from yesterday resurfaced again, but it seemed she was fighting them harder this time.

"No, no! It's okay! In fact…" Erika looked down at her lap with a smile. "It reminded me of how a mother would act."

Katyusha pulled Erika into a hug. It would have been nice if she wasn't being suffocated in her breasts. "I'm glad there's no hard feelings."

"Of course not."

There was a honk from outside where Elizabeta sat in an enormous RV, smiling proudly like she had just won the lottery.

They all helped each other get the stuff inside the car and they were on their way to the city Samara.

What they didn't know was their worst nightmare waited there patiently for them.


End file.
